Bacterial growth test in soaking

Hide and skin being protein is a favourable food for bacteria after slaughtering animal hide and skin is avoided from bacteria by curing. The curing methods are different in different countries some countries dry skin to preserve hide and skin. In these all means of preserving the purpose is to avoid bacteria growth which can damage hide and skin by dehydrating hide and skin because dehydrated skin can not be affected by bacteria. A tannery process begins from soaking that uses water and purpose of soaking is to rehydrate hide and skin back. In the soaking process bacteria become active skin protein is their favorite food moisture content is available and temperature pH is in bacterial favor. To stop the bacterial activity to avoid skin from any damage bacterialcides are added but it is very important to check bacterial activity and bacterialcide efficiency to control the soaking process especially in summer season when temperature rises. To check the bacterial growth there are many environ check available in the market like Merck environ check is available for bacterial growth.

                            How to test 

Environ check is consist of a slide which is filled with agar slide is tightly packed in a glass bottle. Uncap the

bottle and very carefully take out the slide so that your finger does not touch the agar inside when you have the bacterialcide product after half or one hour dip into the soaking bath. Care should be taken while dipping the slide only a few second for dipping and then take it back extra float must be removed by placing tissue paper at the bottoms of the slide. After dipping and taking float on the slide it is placed in an incubator where the temperature between 30 to 35 degree centigrade is adjusted and left it in incubator for 36 to 48 hours.

After passing 36 hours observe the slide which will show the bacterial growth on agar inside yellowish spots appear which indicate the bacterial activity the dense the spot the more the bacteria growth. This spot is then compare to the standard spot images and the calculated as part per million in the soaking bath.